Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen – Hollow Man Review

Unto the breach we must go once more, the Bon Jovi frontlines. He has kidnapped Bruce Springsteen, placed him in a studio, and forced new vocals. Hollow Man, the latest offering from The Boss and his musical captor, is what you would expect of a superstar-featuring song. A track which uses the star power alone to push itself further up the charts, but with little, if any, spirit included. It’s not snobbery against Bon Jovi that Hollow Man is approached with the same caution as a gas leak or sleeping bear, but those who listened to Forever last year will remember the horrors. You cannot shake that fear, for we know how it sounds without Springsteen. He elevates a bad song to a less bad song. He may have been born to run, but he is keen to help the stragglers of sound, too. We should be actively suspicious but equally curious as to what rock and roll pop names can do. Bon Jovi is doing very little.  

His continued collaboration with recognisable names is what keeps Forever afloat. Hollow Man may be autobiographical. It sounds like it if we judge Bon Jovi on his writing. Mentions of a promised land almost guarantee Springsteen’s involvement. His ears perk up at the very mention of America in crisis. Hollow Man has at least a vague suggestion of home country musings. Springsteen is the best part of this song, a treatise on hard work in a country lacking hard workers. It’s this simpler structure that works best for Hollow Man. Promises of a promised land, the gradual decline of a man who realises that the guarantee is not as definite as implied. When Springsteen leads the vocals, Hollow Man is a vaguely charming contemporary hit musing on the same worries The Boss aired on Born in the U.S.A. Very vague, though. Bon Jovi makes sure of that.  

A fine voice but an aimless message. Hollow Man has a core message worth remembering, but the lyrics are meandering at the best of times. Bon Jovi is focused more on rhyming words than he is on a storytelling arc, which features the subtleties, the openness, or even the confusion of a beloved country turning sour. With some recognisable harmonica work from Springsteen included too, Hollow Man soon becomes a spare parts occasion. The best bits are those which feature Springsteen alone. Just listen to his work, then. What Bon Jovi can offer is a harmonising section and an occasionally fine vocal lead which has you hoping the chair The Boss is tied to is wheeled to the microphone again. Bon Jovi has managed to hunt down everyone from Jelly Roll to Robbie Williams. Anyone with an ounce of chartable quality, Bon Jovi will pump it out of them like a withering pop vampire.  

Such is the case for Hollow Man. It’s a musing on country, on class, and the hopelessness which ties the working people together. It sounds a little clunky, and the overlap in musical styles, while similar, could not be more different. Springsteen has written with real frequency about his home country and the problems it faces. Bon Jovi wrote glam rock tracks which still grate the ears of anyone who didn’t grow up listening to the charts in the mid-1980s. Bon Jovi still sounds solid, a surprise to those who know of his vocal cord surgery. He sounded fine enough on Forever, and this pairing of friends in the studio is an odd mixture of Avril Lavigne, Jason Isbell, and James Bay. What comes of it is appealing to fans of the collaborating artist. No wonder Forever’s repackaged approach has Springsteen lead in. He’s as prolific an artist as ever, and any song he touches turns into a message of camaraderie. Hollow Man just about gets by.